While I was walking around Universal Studios Florida back in November, I noticed there were quite a lot of restaurants and shops, especially compared to the number of rides. I started wondering “what is the ride to shop ratio? How many money making shops are built in order to help offset the cost of a major attraction or roller coaster?” A possible answer can be found by looking at the park map. I decided to not only look at Universal’s stats but all of the parks I visited in 2009. I made a spreadsheet in Excel and compared the results.
Before we look at the data a question must first be addressed: What qualifies as an attraction? We recently had a discussion about this topic in the forum. A few of the answers were: “Attractions are anything that attracts people.. So it can be anything in the park that is worth noticing I guess.” “I’ve always thought of it like Attractions can be broken down to rides, shows, eateries, playgrounds, etc.” “Everything that is worthy to be noted on a park map fits in them.” For now we will go with that, whatever is listed on the park map as an attraction.
On their park map, Universal Studios has 21 attractions listed compared with 18 restaurants and 28 shops. This means that for every ride there are 2.19 shops (from now on I will group food venues with shops and simply call them “shops”). Universal Studios’ neighbor, Islands of Adventure, is much worse with a 3.15 ride/shop ratio. Because of the high number of listed attractions the Magic Kingdom looks much better with a 1.52 ratio. Kings Island was next with a one-to-one ratio, one shop for every ride. The park with the best ratio is Holiday World, although I included the water park and all of the slides into the equation, and is the only amusement park on this short list with more rides than shops. This might be a little unfair comparison because I didn’t include Kings Island’s water park into their equation.
I decided to go a step further and look at some pricing statistics. I listed all of the ticket prices I paid and then divided that by the number of rides. Islands of Adventure had the highest ticket price per ride at $2.73. Kings Island had the lowest with only $1.02. A few people have been saying they think Cedar Fair is giving away the gate and compared to these other parks they definitely are (I think they should lower in-park prices and raise the gate but that is another article for another day, or a number of days ago).
Next, I looked at the number of rides that I actually rode on the day of my visit (I have a habit of putting tally marks down on the park map of each attraction I visit). Now, I can take the ticket price I paid and divide by the number of rides for my cost per ride. Universal Studios had the worst value by costing me $7.79 for each ride. Holiday World had the best value with a $2.00 per ride ratio.
Finally, I looked at the number of rides I rode per hour by taking the number of rides I went on and dividing by the number of hours I spent in the park. Islands of Adventure had the highest with 3 rides per hour, followed by Holiday World with 2.5. Kings Island had the lowest with only 1.45.
By looking at this statistical data, I can now confirm with numbers what I have believed: that Holiday World was a better value visit than Kings Island. The rides per hour and the cost per ride was much more favorable at the family owned park.
That being said, this may actually not be a perfect comparison because of a number of variables. The months I visited the parks were different, ranging from May to November. This can have a big impact. To do a perfect study we would have to visit the parks all in a short time span, or take an average over the course of an operating season. Another variable beyond my control was weather, which can greatly impact crowds and throw off your ride per hour numbers. You cannot argue, however against the ticket price per ride and the ride to shop ratios. Those are both in total control of the parks.
Now that I have completely overanalyzed this what do you think? Would you like to read similar articles or is this boring to you? I would appreciate your thoughts and feedback!
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